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Hi!
The wrapping game went really well here!!He totally understood the forward sends and figure 8s/front crosses. There was a little bit of jumping up at your hand but that is usually puppy-speak for ‘more connection needed’. You can look at him more as you are sending him past you, so connection is emphasized more than the hand cue is.
The backwards ending went great too, both in isolation and when you did it as part of the figure 8s. Super!!!
He did have some questions about the sideways sends, like at 1:05 and also a bit later in the session. I think his question was also about connection: you were looking at him when the arm and leg sent. For the sideways sends, you can make eye contact with him then as your arm & leg step to the barrel, your gaze follows them so he gets more support on the cue to go to it.
Great job here!!!
Tracy
Good morning!
>**** No its when I open the door both coming and going or just open it to step out into garage and grab some sodas for the refridge. Its quite the habit. I’ll see if I can get some video.>
OMG!!!! Total teenager herding dog. I can see how it would be frustrating… sometimes we just want to grab a soda and not have a Sheltie assisting by biting the door!
>**** I have been using scatters and snuffles. But it happens in everyday life.>
Maybe have a journal or piece of paper or something on your phone to jot down each scenario it happens in, and we can make a plan. I usually have my phone attached to my hand 😂 so I have a document on it where I jot down a quick note to add to my list of ‘things that drive me crazy with the teenager’ so make a general plan. I keep telling myself that pushy teenagers make GREAT competition dogs and wonderful companions in the house too, so we just need to survive adolescence 🙂
I don’t know if this is the case for you, but I feel that if I am having trouble with my teenage dog in everyday life then it does indeed bubble over into training & play – I get more easily frustrated when they do goofy things like visit people or things go wrong, because there is existing frustration with other things in life. If this is at all the case with you and PoweR, I can TOTALLY relate and happy to support getting it sorted out. Thanks for the insight into what is happening!
The serp session went really well! He had a question early on about coming into you versus running parallel & past the jump. But after that clarification from you (no reward for passing, lots of rewards for coming in) he got it every.single.time. including when you were running at the end. Fabulous!!!
Since this went so well, 2 ideas come to mind:
– you can move to adding the next level of game, adding the other jump (keeping them angled as needed for success as you add more motion)– since he has challenges with other people/dogs and wanting to visit in class, you can add in more distractions in your home environment. Just random objects in the environment will be great to train his brain to ignore things, making it easier to transfer to his class setting too.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning!
>When I get the head check and even the pulling off the wrap is when I’m in motion to start. >
I agree!
I think his send questions are all about knowing that the cues of decel & send have to do with turning to go back the other way, so he is predicting that and has trouble maintaining the commitment while you are indicating the new direction. But…. Cookies help a LOT 🙂
This sending session is going well! He definitely does NOT think of sends as his most favorite thing 🙂 but adding the value for it is really helping AND taking the pressure off of you having to be perfect with timing or feet or arm. Your cues were strong and the rewards definitely helped. You can also tuck a manners minder in behind the wing and trigger it sometimes for him to get rewarded for sending too.
For example – on the first part of the session, you worked on a couple of sends then put together the full sequence: and nailed it (1:30 – 1:36).
Then you repeated the process on the other side and it also went really well: I think the left turn wrap commitment might be the harder side for him because he had a few questions but still went and did the wrap on almost all of them. He didn’t do it at 3:00 because he felt your arm was just too high and too early, causing your hips to turn away from the line. But then he went and did it when you sent again – perfect!
>Do you think that I am on the right track to separate out the sends, and then do a couple reps with motion then go back to stationary start again?>
Totally on the right track! And you can even add in a bit more arm flailing in the general direction of the wing and BIG rewards for when he goes to it even when you are not perfect 🙂 It will probably be even easier when there is a full jump there, but training it on just the wing will make it easy to build tons of value.
Great job!
Tracy
Good morning! It is indeed morning now 😂
>Weird question, on the wings for this game, are we supposed to be imagining where the bar would be if it were a jump or does that not matter for the purpose of the game?>
Great question – for this game, it doesn’t matter. You can use whatever is comfortable. The wing is just a way to get the dogs moving without using stays.
>I needed to work out my verbals for sending to the wing. Once I got the right one, she sent out great. I usually use a backside verbal for a wing send but I was using the wrap verbals.>
Interestingly, the backside verbal helped connect you better. When she was not going to the wrap wing, you were a little disconnected and pointing forward while she was still behind you (:24 and :35 for example). But then when you went to the backside verbal, your connection also got much clearer: 1:06 was good and 1:14 & 1:24 were GREAT! On those you had a clear connection and a low arm so she saw your face and shoulders easily. And sent beautifully to the wing!
The blinds overall went really well! There were a couple that I would say were good (like at :05, a step late perhaps) but most were LOVELY with my favorites being at :49 and 1:46. Super! And at 1:07 you were a tiny bit early (she saw you connected on the new side as she exited the wing wrap – but your line of motion (mouse line!) was really good so she was able to read the line.
Overall, great job! It will be fun to add these to trial runs!
Tracy
Good morning!
>Been working on the double blinds (no videos) and dealing with stall outs so gave her a break yesterday >
Those double blinds are definitely one of the harder skills! It is hard to make connection so it is possible the stall outs were because she didn’t know where to be?
I think the tandem turns went really well!!!!
About which arm(s) to use: for tandems, generally both hands are clearest because tandems rely on the arm cues (because the contexts can be different) – so we want them to be visible.
For threadle wraps, that is more of handler preference. They are related to tandem turns but we don’t use the hand to turn her away as much – we want her to turn herself away. Some people use both hands, some use one hand.
In this session, I think the one hand confused her for a heartbeat when you used it at 1:43ish but then she caught on and worked well for it! The 2 hands worked really well.
Overall, she was finding the turn away moments really well when you were facing forward. Leading out a little but not too much was great! She even brought the toy back pretty quickly early in the session, without any lengthy victory laps (at least not on video haha)
There were a couple of blooper moments but that had to do with you indicating the line toward the wing rather than around it. At :25 & :57 you stepped in too early & pushed her off the line to the other side of the wing. At 1:12 the step was not as big but there was still a bit of motion to the other side of the wing. At 2:18 your hand sent her out to the other side of the wing. She was paying close attention! In those moments, you can reset her with a treat because she was indeed following the handling.
>Couple of times she thought there should have been a food toss so stalled.>
Yes – I think that was mainly when you were using the one hand cue and she thought it looked like you were dropping a treat? But she figured out that it was not a treat drop cue and that went away pretty quickly.
>Also worked on end behavior (4 on for the teeter) on the plank. She caught on to this super fast so no video. Wanted to get this solid before we tried the bang game.>
Terrific! It will be easy to add to the bang game.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
The blind crosses were lovely here! He was committing to the jump really well, and your timing and reconnection were spot on!!
So we can focus on getting the sends more because those are actually a critical part of blinds: we can’t get to a blind if we can’t get far enough ahead without sending. Moving the wing closer will make it harder to get the blind because you will have less time.
It looks like what was happening was that you were decelerating and rotating at the same time, so that was pulling him off. You can be decelerating and facing the wing until he is close to it (without you going all the way to it). Putting on the brakes is needed as long as your feet and shoulders continue to face the wing.
And as you send, emphasize connection and let your arm move with him, rather than the arm moving ahead of him. But I don’t think his questions were about arms or connection – it was mainly about rotation of your feet. Forward facing decel should do the trick! And when he goes to the wing, you can throw his lotus ball to the wing to reward the send.
You can replace the wing with a jump if you think it will make more sense to him, but I think facing forward on the send will be the key.
Nice work here! Let me know how he does with the sends!
Tracy
Good morning!
This session went really well!
Looking at the blinds: he is reading the cues really well: the shoulder rotation and good mechanics of re-connection are showing him the new line really well.
Based on his commitment looking strong, you can start the blind a stride or two sooner: you were starting it right before he took off for the jump so he was seeing the connection on landing (which means the shoulder rotation takes on more value as part of the cue, more on that below).
When he exits the tunnel and you see him looking at the jump, you can start the blind as soon as you see him look at the jump so it is finished before he takes off.
You also had really nice lines of motion (mouse line!) so he was finding the the turns really well! Super!
>I am not really sure why he ass-passed me on some of the balance reps. >
He was giving you good feedback on shoulders and connection 🙂 What was happening on those reps is that when he was behind you landing from the jump, you started to rotate your dog-side shoulder forward and point ahead of him to the wing. That looked exactly like the beginning of the blind cross 🙂 so he said “aha! A blind!” And changed sides. Good boy, he was correct (which is why we want to reward even when it doesn’t go according to our plan).
The reps where he did not changes sides were when you kept connection back to him better. Ideally, your dog-side arm points back to his nose and you don’t swing it forward to show the wing ahead of him. It is that swinging forward that breaks connection and looks like the beginning of the blind cross cue.
And we do want him responding to the beginning of it, because that gets the great turns and also because it eliminates having to be perfect in timing – being perfect is pretty impossible so we like it when the dogs can respond quickly.
Great job here!
Tracy
Good morning!
Flip is a great choice – and it is fun to say 🙂 Because she was reliably correct here, you can add it to the cues now so she starts to learn the word.She was really driving into her threadle wraps here! She was not needing as much help from your hands for the cue to turn away, but definitely keep your hands visible especially when she is on your right side (especially the outside hand like you mentioned).
What I mean by that is you can still make an obvious show of your hands for the cue as she is coming to the correct side of the xpen setup, but you don’t need to do as much of the big hand movement to turn her away. She might need it on the first rep or two as a reminder but then you can probably keep your hands pretty stationary – and that is ideal!
>You get to see Sunnie’s brain firing in all directions between trying to work & bird distractions!
I think she did pretty well considering >I agree! It was hard because there are so many good distractions but she was great!!!
Nice work here!
Tracy
Good morning!
>so put toy on ground use threadle hand and cue to let him turn left to the toy? Then do I tug?>
Yes – the toy will help a a visual aid for him to turn away to the tunnel. I bet he only needs it once or twice.
T
Hi!
He definitely had a few questions here, and the windy rainy weather probably made it harder on his brain 🙂When you were indicating the wing after the turn on the tunnel exit: It is possible that he didn’t recognize that particular wing a wing to wrap at first. Plus as he exited the tunnel, you were pointing forward which made it hard for him to see connection and the wing, and then he wanted to migrate to your left side.
So yes, you can revisit a bit of one-step sending to a wing as a warm up for this game, that will definitely help!
But more importantly – use more connection and less arm pointing when sending. You can have your hand pointed to his nose while you send to the wing and let your hand follow his nose, rather than break connection to point ahead of him.
You have a good camera angle of how the pointing ahead can cause disconnection at 3:21, coming toward the camera. You were pointing forward which turned your shoulders away from the line, so you can see him turning towards you.
You got closer to the wing at 3:34 so he got it – but to get it at a little more of a distance, keep your dog-side arm locked back and make direct eye contact as you run forward to the wing. That should point your shoulders to the line to the wing, so he will commit to it.
Nice work!!
TracyHi!
The pillbug game went really well! Do you have pillbugs in NZ? They are kinda cute.It is a hard game to lock in the connection, like at :18 when you had a little disconnection. But then you really clarified it at :37 and had a ton of strong connection after that.
Adding the blind was really great at 1:59! And on the last rep too. The best reps of the blinds and the reps of keeping him at your side where when you were emphasizing connection without trying to run too fast. You were running with plenty of speed, but when you were really sprinting it was harder to make the connection back to him. So running fast but emphasizing the connection was perfect! You can add in the 2nd pillbug for the advanced games now, I think he is ready.
Tracy
Hi!
Threadle wrap video 1:
These are going well on the wing when you had your feet forward and you were decelerating, so she could lock onto the line – we saw that on the reps at the beginning and the very last rep too!
When you stepped to the wing and did a lot of foot movement, or moved too fast, it made things harder. The decel makes a big difference!
Video 2 – you had more deceleration into the threadle wraps and she got them every time, even when you did 2 in a row. Super! The circle wraps looked strong too 🙂
The next step to the threadle wraps is to keep your feet straight so you don’t have to turn them to the wing at all.
Blind to wrap – she is reading the blinds really well!! Nice! You can start the blind sooner so you can show her the new connection after the blind sooner too.
Definitely connect more to her by looking at her when she exits the tunnel – you were looking forward, so she was zigzagging a bit to try to figure out where to be.
>I have a potential problem that you’ll see in the first video. When I throw a toy for reward, she takes it into the tunnel. I have tried running away and enticing her with another toy. In the last video, I only used food as a reward, and it seemed to help. Do you have any suggestions?>
I saw her do it a bit with the lotus ball. She might be hording it because she thinks you will call her back very fast or take it away very fast. So you will want to attach it to a line so you can throw it and hold the other end. Then play play play play! If you take ti away really fast, she might not want to bring it back 🙂
Nice work here! Looking forward to seeing you soon!
Tracy
Hi!
Thanks for all the info – it is always easier to share the problems and brain storm together 🙂
>I preach and teach the two error rule! Why am I letting him frustrate me so much that I’m not practicing that! Okay noted! I will make a more conscious effort.>
Speaking from experience, it is easy to preach but hard to do 🙂 We are all so focused on doing the game that we sometimes forget to make things easier if they struggle 🙂
>What triggers me – his barking so so ear piecing loud (I have issues with loud noises) so it puts me on edge and typical sheltie he likes to yell! DancR used to talk constantly and it only triggered me sometimes. I think the difference is the pitch of his barking.>Oh yes, that would be hard!!! What if you wore ear buds that are a bit noise cancelling? That can help tune it out which will make it easier to train.
>– He has some weird habbits, such as trying to attack the backside of a door when your leaving, literally slamming the door on you (we are trying to work on this).>
OMG! That is a unique and challenging habit! Is he going through the door with you? Or is this when you are leaving without him?
>– When you stop doing what he wants he bites. And its hard to catch him and interrupt.>
Ouch! Since he is a full fledged teenager, have you done any stepping down from the arousal of work to help him settle, like a scatter of food or a snuffle mat? Or is this happening in life (not training) and he is biting for attention?
>-he is an obsessive licker, ie your skin and is hard to get to stop. -he has no personal space boundaries with any human.>
These two are probably related LOL!!! One of my dogs want to be an obsessive licker – I just get up and move away when she does it, then redirect with a bone or something to give her something to do. Same with dogs that want to crawl into my skin – I move away. So they learn to hang out near me but without the constant licking or crawling on me.
>I’m sure there are others, but those are what come to mind right now.>I can see how they would be challenging!!! And if it piles up, it can be frustrating too.
>I will make sure to get more video at class so I can analyze exactly when he is leaving.>
Yes! That will give us a lot of info.
Keep me posted!
Tracy
Hi!
The serps went great! He found the line on the serp jumps every time and in both directions. Yay!!!
The hardest part was the tunnel exit stuff when he needed to turn tight 🙂 When you were doing a blind on the tunnel exit, it was sending him a bit wide because he didn’t see turn cues before he went in. Doing the FC there worked a lot better because you were able to show it before he went into the tunnel .And, give massive connection on the tunnel exit so he can find the new side sooner. When you were not that connected (like at :20) he would blast past the line. You got better lines with more connection.
The tunnel exits game went really well! He was finding the lines nicely, especially on the left and right turns. He was exiting the tunnel straight on the Go cues but not getting to the wing – you can put the wing more on his line to see if he will drive ahead and commit to it
>We got the rear cross turning right immediately, but couldn’t get the left turn.>
That was interesting! I think that was probably a side preference thing – the right turn RCs were good but a little late like at 1:36, but he read the pressure anyway.
The left turn RC cues were actually better, like at 1:42 and especially 1:56 and 2:10 but he still turned right. So you can help him with a placed toy or a target lid as a visual aid. And you can also move the wing before the RC entry to be able to get closer to him n the RC line so you are fully on the new side before he enters the tunnel. That might help a lot!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
Hi!
>Seems like when ever I have few minutes to go out is when the husband needs to mow lawn lol.>
HAHA!!! And we don’t want to discourage the mowing, so…. LOL!
>I had done it when Brighton came to Brain camp and have been working it again with him since he is doing agility again. Wednesday in class I did it and even though I thought he was good he wasn’t. Lol still learning
>That’s right! Was it Brighton who you thought was good and wasn’t? You can always add more movement to the game if he needs more.
Looking at the class video – he was doing well with the cookie pattern game, but I wonder if tugging would get engagement sooner? Maybe toss a treat and when he look at you: tug time! He does love his tug toy a LOT!
He turned to his right into the tunnel brilliantly! Left turns… so much harder! You can help him by putting him on an easier angle and even putting the toy down at the entry of the tunnel to help him organize turning away to his left.
He caught on really well when you showed it to him, so you can jump start the left turns by placing the toy at the tunnel entry to get him remembering the left turn.
Really interesting that at about 7:10 you did a relatively straight line entry and he read it as a rear cross and turned left on the tunnel exit 🙂 The rest of the straight tunnels to the FC looked good!
>Sorry this is long video. My instructor times it but messed up on the timing.>
Yes – very long session for a baby dog but you were really engaged and kept him playing so he stayed happy and engaged the whole time! Yay!
Great job 🙂
Tracy
